Random not working correctly

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So I want to make a solitaire game that is completely driven by randomness, however the randomization isn't working correctly. For example, my health would be at 10/10. I gain 3 health and stay at 10/10 (but that's intentional). But then I roll a 0 (nothing happens to my health) and suddenly my health is at 1/10. Can someone tell me what the heck is wrong with my code?

C#

using System;
					
public class Program
{
	public static void Main()
	{
		Random random = new Random();
		int HP=10;
		string input;
		int roll=0;
		int counter=0;
		int currentResult;
		int sector=0;
		int printHP=0;
		int emptyHP=0;
		int[] results=new int[] {-5, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3};
		Console.WriteLine("Welcome to RandomLife! Type \"help\" without the quotes to get started! \nPlease be wary- this has a few bugs and is more random than I would have thought. :(");
		while (true){
			Console.WriteLine("\nAwaiting Input...");
			input=Console.ReadLine();
			if (input=="roll"){
				Console.Clear();
				Console.WriteLine("Rolling...");
				roll=random.Next(8);
				currentResult=results[roll];
				HP=HP+currentResult;
				if (HP>10){
					HP=10;
				}
				counter++;
				printHP=HP;
				emptyHP=10;
				Console.Clear();
				Console.WriteLine("");
				Console.WriteLine("You just rolled a "+currentResult+".");
				Console.WriteLine("");
				Console.Write("HP: "+HP+" ");
				while (printHP!=0){
					Console.Write("❤");
					printHP--;
					emptyHP--;
				}
				while (emptyHP!=0){
					Console.Write("♥");
					emptyHP--;
				}
				if (counter==3){
					sector++;
					counter=0;
				}
				Console.WriteLine("\n \n Sector: "+sector);
			}
			else if (input=="restart"){
				Console.Clear();
				HP=10;
				sector=0;
				counter=0;
				Console.WriteLine("Restart Complete.");
			}
			else if (input=="help"){
				Console.Clear();
				Console.WriteLine("Welcome to RandomLife! Here are the three commands you will want to choose from. \n \"roll\" will roll the dice for you- this is the command you will be using the most! \n \"restart\" Use this command to restart the game- restarting your health to 10 and your sector to 0. \n \"help\" This is the command you used to get here. :) \n \n HOW THE GAME WORKS \n Rolling the die will make you either gain 1-3HP, lose 1-3HP, lose 5HP (not 4HP), or nothing happens. (But it's buggy and a lot of different things can and will happen.) \n Every 3 rolls will grant you +1 sector. Get to 10 sectors to win. \n But be careful- running out of HP will make you lose. \n \n Good luck!");
			}
			else {
				Console.Clear();
				Console.WriteLine("Unknown Command. Type \"help\" to see what commands you can use.");
			}
			if (HP<=0){
				HP=10;
				sector=0;
				counter=0;
				Console.WriteLine("\n You Died! \n Your HP and sectors have been reset. Type \"roll\" to continue.");
			}
			if (sector>=10){
				Console.Clear();
				HP=10;
				sector=0;
				counter=0;
				Console.WriteLine("Congratulations! You won! \n Your HP and sectors have been reset. Type \"roll\" to continue.");
			}
		}
	}
}

What I have tried:

I have tried to change it from using an array to directly using random.Next(-5, 4), I have tried using random.Next(4) and then using a bit of code to decide if it's positive or negative, and neither have worked.

Posted 13-Jan-21 11:01am

Razzon22

Updated 13-Jan-21 12:53pm

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Comments

George Swan 13-Jan-21 20:00pm

Here are a couple of suggestions. The test for your 2 'while' statements should be '>0' not '!=0' if your variables become negative your while loop will not end until int.MinValue is reached. Also your 2 variables printHP emptyHP are complementary as they always sum to 10. So just use 1 variable and subtract it from 10 to get the other value. Finally, use a 'switch' statement to avoid the need for multiple nested 'if' statements.

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This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2021-01-13T11:05:00

Compiling does not mean your code is right! :laugh:
Think of the development process as writing an email: compiling successfully means that you wrote the email in the right language - English, rather than German for example - not that the email contained the message you wanted to send.

So now you enter the second stage of development (in reality it's the fourth or fifth, but you'll come to the earlier stages later): Testing and Debugging.

Start by looking at what it does do, and how that differs from what you wanted. This is important, because it give you information as to why it's doing it. For example, if a program is intended to let the user enter a number and it doubles it and prints the answer, then if the input / output was like this:

Input   Expected output    Actual output
  1            2                 1
  2            4                 4
  3            6                 9
  4            8                16

Then it's fairly obvious that the problem is with the bit which doubles it - it's not adding itself to itself, or multiplying it by 2, it's multiplying it by itself and returning the square of the input.
So with that, you can look at the code and it's obvious that it's somewhere here:

C#

private int Double(int value)
   {
   return value * value;
   }

Once you have an idea what might be going wrong, start using the debugger to find out why. Put a breakpoint on the first line of the method, and run your app. When it reaches the breakpoint, the debugger will stop, and hand control over to you. You can now run your code line-by-line (called "single stepping") and look at (or even change) variable contents as necessary (heck, you can even change the code and try again if you need to).
Think about what each line in the code should do before you execute it, and compare that to what it actually did when you use the "Step over" button to execute each line in turn. Did it do what you expect? If so, move on to the next line.
If not, why not? How does it differ?
Hopefully, that should help you locate which part of that code has a problem, and what the problem is.
This is a skill, and it's one which is well worth developing as it helps you in the real world as well as in development. And like all skills, it only improves by use!

Patrice T · Answer 2 · 2021-01-13T12:53:00

Quote:
But then I roll a 0 (nothing happens to my health) and suddenly my health is at 1/10. Can someone tell me what the heck is wrong with my code?

Your code do not behave the way you expect, or you don't understand why !

There is an almost universal solution: Run your code on debugger step by step, inspect variables.
The debugger is here to show you what your code is doing and your task is to compare with what it should do.
There is no magic in the debugger, it don't know what your code is supposed to do, it don't find bugs, it just help you to by showing you what is going on. When the code don't do what is expected, you are close to a bug.
To see what your code is doing: Just set a breakpoint and see your code performing, the debugger allow you to execute lines 1 by 1 and to inspect variables as it execute.

Debugger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[^]

Mastering Debugging in Visual Studio 2010 - A Beginner's Guide[^]
Basic Debugging with Visual Studio 2010 - YouTube[^]

Debugging C# Code in Visual Studio - YouTube[^]

The debugger is here to only show you what your code is doing and your task is to compare with what it should do.

Random not working correctly

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Random not working correctly

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